GAME PREVIEW: AMERKS, MARLIES CLOSE OUT SEASON SERIES TONIGHT
Apr 17, 2024TONIGHT'S GAME OVERVIEW
The playoff-bound Rochester Americans (37-23-6-3) begin their final week of the 2023-24 regular season tonight as they welcome the Toronto Marlies (34-23-10-3) back to The Blue Cross Arena for the final time this season. The 7:05 p.m. matchup will be carried live on The Sports Leader 95.7 FM/950 AM The Fan Rochester as well as AHLTV.
A win tonight would move the Amerks, who are 11-2-0-1 in their last 14 games and have points in 26 of their last 35 dating back to Jan. 17, into sole possession of first place in the North Division standings. Rochester trails Syracuse by one point heading into the final three games of the season.
Rochester hasn't won a division title since 2004-05, the same year they captured the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as regular season champions.
SEASON SERIES SNAPSHOT
Tonight is the final meeting between the Amerks and Marlies and the fourth in the past 33 days. Rochester shows a 3-1-0-1 record thus far in the season-series through the first five matchups in 2023-24.
The Amerks have earned points in four of the first five games against the Marlies this season, including three of a possible four points on home ice.
Devon Levi has won both his starts against Toronto, showing a 1.92 goals-against average and a .959 save percentage while also making a career-high 52 saves in the 2-1 overtime win north of the border on Feb. 19.
In the last 28 regular season games against Toronto, Rochester has scored at least one goal in the first period 19 times.
LAST TIME OUT
A night after going scoreless despite registering a career-high 11 shots, Jiri Kulich atoned with his second hat trick of the season as part of a career-best four-point performance in leading the Amerks to an 8-2 blowout win over the Belleville Senators Saturday at The Blue Cross Arena.
Along with Kulich recording a multi-point outing and a team-best plus-five rating, Isak Rosén (2+1), Michael Mersch (1+1), Jeremy Davies (0+2), Justin Richards (0+2), Aleksandr Kisakov (0+2), and Noah Laaouan (0+2) all chipped in a multi-point performance. Zach Metsa (1+0), Mason Jobst (1+0), Brandon Biro (0+1), Nikita Novikov (0+1), Anton Wahlberg (0+1) and Damien Giroux (0+1) all registered one point each for Rochester, which boasts a 7-1-0-1 record in its last nine home games.
Goaltender Devon Levi (14-6-3) stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced to pick up his 14th win in what was his 23rd appearance of the season.
PLAYOFF TICKET PUNCHED
By virtue of Utica's overtime loss to Providence last Friday night, the Amerks punched their ticket to the postseason for the 49th time in the 68-year history of the franchise.
The Amerks have qualified for the playoffs in each of the last five years (dating back to the 2017-18 campaign), including all three seasons under head coach Seth Appert.
Rochester's run to the Eastern Conference Final last season was the team's deepest playoff run in 23 years.
SHARING THE WEALTH
After seeing three players reach the 20-goal mark last season, the Amerks could potentially have the same or more by the end of the weekend.
Jiri Kulich, who has four goals over his last three games, reached the 20-goal mark for the second straight season on March 27 in Syracuse. Kulich, whose 25 goals lead all Rochester skaters, became the first Amerks player to score 20 or more goals in back-to-back seasons since Cole Schneider and Justin Bailey each did so in 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Mason Jobst, the team's leading point-getter with a career-high 50 points in 61 games this season, reached the mark for the first time in his pro career on April 7. He comes into the week riding a five-game point streak, including goals in three straight and four of five games over that span.
Linus Weissbach (16) is also making a strong push for his second straight 20-goal season as he comes into tonight with six goals in his last seven contests. Isak Rosén is also within reach after scoring his career-high 16th goal of the season reaching the mark in 10 fewer games.
NEW YEAR, NEW NEUCHEV
After producing just five points in his first 23 games, rookie foward Viktor Neuchev has unsurprisingly emerged as Rochester’s top scoring rookie through the final month of the regular season.
Dating back to Dec. 29 and the turn of the New Year, Neuchev has erupted for 23 points on nine goals and 14 assists over his previous 31 games.
Neuchev has recorded at least one point in 14 games over that span, including a season-long six-game point streak from Dec. 29 to Jan. 20 which saw him score three goals and record eight points.
Buffalo’s third-round selection (74th overall) in 2022, Neuchev’s most impressive performance of the season came back on Jan. 27, finding the back of the net for the third time in four games with the game-winning goal while also adding two assists in the 7-4 win over Laval. Since Jan. 5, Neuchev has recorded six multi-point games, which includes a pair of three-point efforts.
Of Neuchev’s 11 goals this season, eight have been scored on home ice and three have come against Laval. Neuchev, who had a 40-goal season while playing for Russia’s junior league during the 2021-22 campaign, currently leads all Amerks rookies with 28 points (11+17) and 84 shots in 54 games.
WORKING OVERTIME
The 5-4 shootout win against Bridgeport on April 7 was the eighth game over the last 23 for Rochester that went beyond regulation, with three of the four producing a 2-1 score. Overall, the Amerks have gone to extra time on 23 different occasions, the most by any team this season, including each of the first three games of the campaign.
Three of the last five games against Toronto have required extra time to determine a winner, which include the Amerks overcoming a first-period deficit and scoring once in the second stanza.
Four of Jiri Kulich’s five game-winning goals this season have come by way of overtime while Isak Rosén, Brandon Biro, Zach Metsa, and Michael Mersch have each the clinching goal during the extra frame.
Dating back to the start of the 2021-22 season, of Jeremy Davies’ five game-winning goals, four have come in overtime while all five have come on the road.
Never before in the near 68-year history of the franchise have the Amerks opened a season with three consecutive overtime contests.
Dating back to Jan. 20 of last season, 33 of Rochester’s previous 106 regular-season games have required overtime to determine a winner. Of the Amerks 53 wins during that span, 19 have come following the end of regulation.
The Amerks show a 10-6 record in overtime this season and are 4-3 in the shootout.
Rochester tied an AHL record with 29 overtime games in 2017-18, showing a 9-11 record in overtime and 3-6 in the shootout.
LEANING ON LEVI
Devon Levi has earned the start in 21 of the last 31 games since being reassigned to Rochester on Jan. 20, including five straight to open February. He has won seven of his last eight starts and nine of 10 dating back to the start of March.
Levi, who boasts a 14-6-3 record in 23 appearances with the Amerks, held the opposition to three or fewer goals in each game over his recent six-game win streak. He totaled 188 saves on 201 shots while boasting an impressive 2.17 goals-against average and a .935 save percentage over that span.
His career-high 52 saves in the Amerks overtime win at Toronto on Feb. 19 were the most by an Amerks goaltender since Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen had 54 in a 2-1 win at Syracuse on Feb. 25, 2022.
Levi, who is tied for fifth among all rookie netminders with a .925 save percentage, has held the opposition to three or fewer goals in all but four of his 23 appearances. He’s 14-2-3 this season in those games.
Levi won the Mike Richter Award, given annually to the top goaltender in men’s college hockey, for the second straight year following the 2022-23 season.
The only two-time winner in the award’s history, Levi led the nation again with a .933 save percentage, and tied for third in both shutouts (6) and saves (1,183).
TOKARSKI ON THE MOVE
Veteran goaltender Dustin Tokarski, who missed the first eight games of the season due to an injury he sustained in training camp, made his season debut back on Nov. 3 against Utica.
In doing so, the two-time Calder Cup winner and AHL All-Star became just the 18th goaltender in league history to play in 400 career games, a list that also includes former Amerks Bobby Perreault (512), Michael Leighton (507), Drew MacIntyre (440) and Ed Chadwick (417).
Tokarski, who’s in his second stint with the Amerks and 10th different AHL franchise, went 1-1-0 during a brief two-game stint with Rochester as part of the COVID-shortnened 2020-21 campaign. He went 12-20-7 in 42 appearances with the Buffalo Sabres from 2021-23.
He appeared in his 500th pro game against Hartford on March 20. He has played in 80 NHL contests and 420 AHL games.
Tokarski, who’s 10-9-3 in his first 23 appearances, surpassed the 10,000-save mark for his AHL career following a 31-save effort against Utica on Nov. 10. He also reached the 12,000-save mark for his pro career the week prior when he made his season debut against the Comets.
Entering tonight, the 34-year-old Tokarski is only three wins away from tying Red Almas for 11th all-time in career wins (218). He’s also 18 games away from tying Drew MacIntyre for 13rd all-time (440) and will tie Yann Danis for eighth all-time on his next shutout.
JOBST HAVING A CAREER YEAR
Forward Mason Jobst enters the contest with 35 points (15+20) over his last 37 games, the most by an Amerk since the turn of the new year. Jobst, who hasn't gone more than two games without a point over that span, recorded a career-best three-assist outing on Feb. 16 against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and followed that up by scoring goals in three straight games, including his career-high 16th goal of the season against Belleville on Feb. 23.
Since then, the fifth-year forward has already surpassed his goal total in 18 fewer games this season and successfully reached the 50-point mark for the first time in his career with another first-period goal on Saturday afternoon against Belleville, his third in as many games.
Jobst has totaled 101 points (40+61) in 148 career games as an Amerk and has amassed 126 points (51+75) over 222 career American Hockey League games with Rochester, San Jose, Bridgeport, and Binghamton.
SERIES NOTABLES
Both Rochester (19-5-1-2) and Toronto (21-3-4-0) come into the matchup sporting winning records when leading after the first period. The Marlies are 24-1-4-0 this season when carrying a lead into the second period while the Amerks remain a near-perfect 20-0-0-1 in that regard.
Since the start of the 2022-23 campaign, Rochester has gone 8-for-48 (16.7%) on the power-play against the Marlies while also showing a 73.8% success-rate on the penalty kill (33-for-44).
In 27 of the last 41 meetings between the two teams dating back to the 2016-17 season, the team that scored first has come away with the victory. Additionally, in 27 of the last 32 meetings, the winning team has scored at least four goals dating back to the 2017-18 season.
With a shootout deciding the last game between the two teams on March 22, it marks the third straight season with at least one contest reaching the skills competition.
Rochester begins the week with two players with at least 20 goals and 40 or more points. Should Isak Rosen score two or more tallies over the final three games, it would be the third straight season the Amerks have had three skaters reach the mark dating back to the 2021-22 season.